Do as I say, not as I do

Do you remember when you were younger and your father or mother would offer the advice, “do as I say and not as I do”? Well here’s that same lesson, applied later in life.

My firm’s business model is built on the idea that I’m “my own man.” When you call, you get me, and just me. That’s not to say that I can’t build an impromptu team of attorneys and other professionals to handle your matter. Nor is to say that, in time, I might not decide to collaborate with like-minded lawyers in a more formal way. It’s just that the success or failure of my consultancy business doesn’t depend at all on increasing the size and scope of my “team.” I will succeed on my own, thank you very much.

But if you’re like the vast majority of my clients, your business model is probably not like mine at all. Your success is entirely dependent on recruiting others to join you. Indeed, you will come nowhere close to success unless and until you expand your team.

And so I reach my point. You can set up your business entity and dust off a business plan and plod along on your own for quite some time. But there’s no “there” there until there’s two or three of you there. When you are a “team” of co-founders, your success is not assured but you at least have credibility and purpose. When you are just one toiling alone, your failure in the end is almost assured.

So, do as I say, not as I do. Make the first order of priority in your business building a small team that shares a common purpose.